Career Coaching

Academia and the world of work are changing - and career coaching is adapting

Compared to just ten years ago the way we work and study is changing. Today we engage across increasingly diverse and inclusive teams often spread across different countries, Technology is also changing and leveraging not only how we communicate and network, but also, where we are working (home/office/hybrid). Increasingly, students supplement their experience with freelance, contract, and temporary work.

Hi my name is Les. I am an academic coach. During this time, I have coached Columbia MBAs, MFAs and now serve in the Columbia Start-up Lab, Almaworks as a leadership and entrepreneurship coach. I am a research scholar on Coaching in Education in the Department of Leadership and Organization at Teachers College where I am researching frameworks for building a coaching mindset to enhance academic and professional journeys. Sharing my time between the US and Asia, I support each student to build their own agency in the process in authoring their pathways and empowering their choices for a fulfilling career and life engaged with personal growth, ongoing skills acquisition, competitive remuneration and work-life balance. As an NYU trained coach and mentor the most important reward for me is when a student experiences the vibrancy of the career process and learns that it is a place for imagination, and self-discovery.

The career coaching process is a space of self-discovery where students assess their strengths, interests, values, and personality traits and where they need to develop new skills that will be a foundation for their journey. Our career and job search strategy which includes industry selection, networking, connecting with potential employers, resume-prep and mock interviews, internships, and job-onboarding.

My coaching journey. I began advising university students in 1998 in Tokyo. Completing my professional coaching training at New York University, I am now an ICF professionally credentialed coach and ICF-certified Group Coach. I serve university students and professionals in the creative industries, business, technology, sciences, and healthcare, and support them in their pathways for continued education. I also serve as an ICF Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Coach-Mentor, where I support a new generation of professional coaches to bring DEI into their own toolkits. In addition to coaching in the Columbia community, I am a career mentor at American University in Paris and initiated coaching initiatives at Yale, University of Melbourne in Australia and at California State University. In 2022, I founded India’s first coaching initiative to serve students in tribal communities. And, I am now building a syllabi for graduate coaching workshops for two management programs in Asia.

Inspired by education: Academic communities are very special to me - they are communities of knowledge and communities of practice. Through learning we create skills and tools to better navigate life’s pathways and challenges. During my early career as a management consultant in the 1990s, I discovered how coaching could have a profound impact on an individual’s life choices. I was fortunate to have many people who supported me along the way such as professors, supervisors, mentors and I discovered that coaching (and the coaching mindset) needs to start early. After my BA in History at Boston University I specialized in global management at Boston University (M.Sc) and California State Polytechnic University (MBA). During my MBA, I studied under Organizational Behavior specialist, Dr. Abraham Rami Shani, author of Behavior in Organizations (McGraw Hill, 2008) and we co-published on parallel learning systems that are used today in cross-national operations and technology transfer. As a management consultant, I served Fortune 100 multinationals including 3M, Du Pont, GE, Dow, Exxon and Bayer on their global strategy. During these projects, I discovered that the coaching mindset (inspired by Whitmore 2002) was an essential tool for career advancement. I also completed my BA (Hons) Fine Art from Central Saint Martins College of Art London and MA Fine Art from Goldsmiths, University of London and MA specializing in Asian art at Musashino Art University in Tokyo. I received my PhD from the Faculty of Art, Environment and Technology, Leeds Metropolitan University, UK and Post-Doctorate in Fine Art from the School of Art and Communications at University of São Paulo, Brazil.

Continued learning: I explore cultural diversity. Recipient of the Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Award (2022), An Asia specialist, I served as Senior Scholar in South Asian Art and performance at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts and was Visiting Associate Professor at Visva Bharati University in West Bengal. I have also served as Post-doctoral Liaison at Peking University and Professor of Record of American Art History at Renmin University in Beijing and am recipient of their Teaching Merit Award. I received Fulbright Hays US Public Diplomacy Awards for Mongolia (2014) and China (2018) as well as a US Department of State sponsored fellowship where I created the first study on education exchange in Mongolia and have produced cross-cultural collaborations and exhibitions in France, South Korea, Germany, India and upcoming in Sri Lanka and Taiwan.

Fun fact: I am also an exhibiting artist. Starting at age fifteen, I studied photography under Walt Disney cinematographer Wolfgang Lauter. Today, I exhibit in the Americas, Europe and Asia and now prepare museum exhibitions in Sri Lanka and Taiwan. My careers in art and management have woven together throughout my life - each informing the other - and these strands converged through coaching. I discovered that coaching is an art - and the process is both left brain analytical and right brain creative.

Executive and LeadershipLab Coach, Columbia Business School, New York (2019-2022) Serving MBAs and EMBAs shaping the futures of entrepreneurship, technology, healthcare, finance, consulting and diplomacy.

GoldAward™Mentor, University of London (2020-present) Les is a GoldAward™Mentor at Goldsmiths, University of London. Working with clients to build well-rounded portfolio of skills, experiences and knowledge to complement your academic achievements is essential in the competitive working world. Increasing client self-awareness, catalogue key strengths and areas for improvement, build a recognition-portfolio for all activities that impact careers.

Founder, Nagaland Youth Coaching and Mentorship Program, India, Highland Institute - expanding coaching and mentoring to young people from the thirteen tribal communities in Nagaland to develop skills and pathways in leadership, career development, entrepreneurship and balanced mental and physical health.

Entrepreneurship Mentor, Parsons School of Design, The New School, New York - Working with creative industry entrepreneurs to develop their projects from drawing board to boardroom.

Career Mentor, American University of Paris, France - mentoring Graduate students to build their international careers.

New York Foundation for the Arts, New York Mentor Supporting new initiatives in Cultural and creative entrepreneur mentorship.